2016 Mind Riot Winner CleanFare Launches App

The Leonardo gears-up for the seventh year of Utah’ largest social entrepreneurship competition for high schoolers, and a former winner launches his app to improve air quality.

MAY 2, 2017 (Salt Lake City, UT) – High schoolers make the best entrepreneurs. They take risks, think big and refuse to bow to the current realities of the world. The Leonardo’s Mind Riot program is all about unleashing this entrepreneurial talent to solve pressing social and environmental problems. Every June, The Leonardo convenes 100 of the most curious and creative high school students to undertake a three-day sprint to generate innovate solutions around a yearly topic such as energy, education or pollution. Students are paired with mentors and experts from the community to help them refine their concepts before pitching their big ideas “Shark Thank-style” for cash and prizes to help turn their ideas into action.

Mind Riot is much more than a fun and educational thought experiment. The teens really do take their ideas and put them into action. Sam Hirsch, a 2016 Mind Rioter, recently released his beta mobile app CleanFare on the app store. Designed to increase use of alternative transit, CleanFare tracks users trips whenever they walk, bike or take public transit and users then earn rewards from local businesses when they reach travel goals. Hirsch originally conceived of the idea for CleanFare at Mind Riot. “I can directly attribute where I am now to Mind Riot,” said Hirsch. CleanFare is currently seeking beta testers and any interested user can download the app for free at https://cleanfareapp.com/.

Mind Riot 2018 runs June 14th-16th with a new cohort of young entrepreneurs. This year, the theme is “CONNECT” and students will be developing big ideas to help communities better connect physically, socially and politically with one another. Applications are open until May 18th and any students grades 8-12 are encouraged to apply. Get more details about Mind Riot and apply at: https://www.theleonardo.org/mind-riot/